Generator gets visitors from Australia!

Generator gets visitors from Australia!

Generator had the pleasure of meeting with visitors from Australia, Chris Devenish and Michael Higgins, for a professional learning exchange. Two days were dedicated to talking about Generator and the City’s involvement.

The City of Burlington has long promoted intercultural understanding and interpersonal connections through exchanges and is excited to continue that spirit with partners from Australia.After visiting Burlington last October as part of a North American trip Chris Devenish and Michael Higgins from the Geeveston Community Centre (GeCo) in Tasmania were so impressed by the work in the City that they applied for and received an International Learning & Development grant. It offers senior staff of not-for-profit organizations the opportunity to spend a period of time overseas visiting like-minded organizations to learn international best practices in their relevant areas of operations and, once back, disseminate the learnings throughout their sectors. They will be spending a week with CEDO and a week with the Intervale Center.

GeCo is a ‘Neighbourhood House’ ,similar to a Community Development Corporation in the states, that is part of a network that forms the largest community development infrastructure in Tasmania. Neighbourhood Houses work from a community development framework, which involves processes and ways of working to enable individuals and groups of people to make changes in their community, on issues that affect them. It encourages active participation, consultation and involvement from the broad community in the design, development, delivery and evaluation of projects.

The goal of GeCo on this trip is to learn as much as they can to make a case for a community & economic development office in the Huon Valley. This, along with a more structured approach to local food security is of great importance to them and the time spent in Burlington will be vital to advancing these long term goals for their community. Sharing stories of success and meeting with members of the community who have benefited from your work are critical to helping them make the case when presenting at the conference of Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania, their governing body.